By Aaron Miller-
Hollywood star Brad Pitt(pictured) is on the last legs of his acting career, after spending more than 30 years in the entertainment industry. The Oscar-winning actor told GQ magazine in a profile interview that he is going through the “last semester or trimester” of his career.
The actor who has starred in blockbuster movies, including Fight Club, Troy and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, to name a few – has opened up about suffering with a little-known condition called prosopagnosia, also called “face blindness”.
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“I consider myself on my last leg… this last semester or trimester. What is this section gonna be? And how do I wanna design that?” Pitt said.
The 58-year-old actor started his journey in Hollywood in the late 1980s and found fame with 1991’s ‘Thelma & Louise’.
Prosopagnosia prevents the sufferer from recognising people’s faces. “Face blindness often affects people from birth and is usually a problem a person has for most or all of their life,” the NHS website notes.
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“It can have a severe impact on everyday life,” the NHS explains. “Many people with prosopagnosia are not able to recognise family members, partners or friends. They may cope by using alternative strategies to recognise people, such as remembering the way they walk or their hairstyle, voice or clothing. But these types of strategies do not always work – for example, when a person with prosopagnosia meets someone in an unfamiliar location.”
Brad pitt opens up about suffering with “face blindness”
Speaking to GQ about the condition and the impact it has had on his confidence, particularly when it comes to social situations, Pitt revealed that he struggles to remember new people or recognise their faces, which has triggered a fear of prosopagnosia, also called “face blindness”.
According to the NHS, prosopagnosia prevents the sufferer from recognising people’s faces. “Face blindness often affects people from birth and is usually a problem a person has for most or all of their life,” the NHS website notes.
“It can have a severe impact on everyday life,” the NHS explains. “Many people with prosopagnosia are not able to recognise family members, partners or friends.They may cope by using alternative strategies to recognise people, such as remembering the way they walk or their hairstyle, voice or clothing. But these types of strategies do not always work – for example, when a person with prosopagnosia meets someone in an unfamiliar location.”
Speaking to GQ about the condition and the impact it has had on his confidence, particularly when it comes to social situations, Pitt revealed that he struggles to remember new people or recognise their faces, which has triggered a fear that people assume he is: ‘aloof, inaccessible, self-absorbed.’
Suffering with prosopagnosia has left the 58-year-old actor feeling ashamed, and although he has never been “Nobody believes me!” he says when discussing his condition, adding that he wants to “meet another” person who has it when the GQ writer exclaims they think that their husband suffers with it as well.
Elsewhere in the article, Pitt revealed he’d previously dealt with a bout of depression. “I think I spent years with a low-grade depression, and it’s not until coming to terms with that, trying to embrace all sides of self — the beauty and the ugly — that I’ve been able to catch those moments of joy,” he said, later adding that he attended Alcoholics Anonymous for a year and a half whilst on his sobriety journey (that started in 2016 following his divorce from Angelina Jolie). “I had a really cool men’s group here that was really private and selective, so it was safe,” he recalled.
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